Preventing any auto-sorting/renaming/refoldering

[RobertLaing 0]

Hello,

I would like to take away as many of the auto-sorting, naming etc features from Emby but I don't know the best way to do this.

It is very inconsistent with its renaming and reorganising, and given that I spend a lot of time doing this myself, I really don't need an app to do it for me. Frankly, I don't need any of the images, collections, re-foldering and renaming that seems random and ends up unpacking my carefully organised folders for no reason. I have tried watching episode 1 of a number of shows in completely different folders, but it will autoplay a completely different file consistently. 

I really don't want to go back to the buggy Plex if I can help it, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Abobader 3464]

Hello RobertLaing,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

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Emby Team

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, are you following our naming guides for Movies and TV Shows?
https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159102-movie-naming
https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159110-tv-naming

Shouldn't really be much to do.  There are a few good file renaming programs like BulkRenamer, Filebot that make quick work of creating file names and folders proper with Emby's naming standards.

[RobertLaing 0]

Thank you Cayars - that seems like a lot of work when I have named them exactly how I like. This only seems to affect TV shows, and not films. So Emby naming standards mean that they have to be renamed? Apologies for the naivety on this issue, I have only started with Emby this week.

I don't really care that Emby assigns completely the wrong film to the Title in films, because I know what it is. But in the TV files they just seem to get thrown around and randomly reassigned. I don't need preview screens, images, covers or anything other than for the folder name and structure to not be changed in any way. 

[GrimReaper 4741]

1 hour ago, RobertLaing said:

Hello,

I would like to take away as many of the auto-sorting, naming etc features from Emby but I don't know the best way to do this.

It is very inconsistent with its renaming and reorganising, and given that I spend a lot of time doing this myself, I really don't need an app to do it for me. Frankly, I don't need any of the images, collections, re-foldering and renaming that seems random and ends up unpacking my carefully organised folders for no reason.

I don't quite understand this, why are you under the impression that Emby does any of those things, as it surely doesn't rename, move or reorgainze your folder structure? 

[Carlo 4561]

3 hours ago, RobertLaing said:

Thank you Cayars - that seems like a lot of work when I have named them exactly how I like.

Emby is a bit flexible but it needs to be able to figure out what the files are.

Can you give us an example or two of how you have your shows setup?

[RobertLaing 0]

17 hours ago, GrimReaper76 said:

I don't quite understand this, why are you under the impression that Emby does any of those things, as it surely doesn't rename, move or reorgainze your folder structure? 

Your quite right, it does not reorganise the files or folders on my PC, however it does re-organise them and renames them on my Television, crucially. If it is third party apps that do this instead, is there a way for me to disable this?

 

13 hours ago, cayars said:

Emby is a bit flexible but it needs to be able to figure out what the files are.

Can you give us an example or two of how you have your shows setup?

If I plug my drive into my television it also has to recognise the file type in order to play it/draw on subs if necessary etc. What it doesn't need to do is rename files and folders.

The attached images might help:

e1 - How the folders appear on my home drive
e2 - As an example, I Love Lucy series files
e3 - How I have my two folders named for film and television 
e4 - An example of the folder structure for the series Mars, with seasons 1 & 2 in separate folder
e5 - For some reason, almost all TV shows have been renamed 'The Suspects: True Australian Thrillers' (including I Love Lucy) a show I have never heard of or watched/downloaded. You will also see it has combined both seasons into one, putting episodes in the wrong order. That's just one example.

[ebr 16185]

Hi.  It is true that we are not a simple file browser (like the interface on your TV).  Emby is a much more intelligent system than that and, if you will follow a few naming and layout conventions, the functionality the system can provide is quite vast.  If you really only want simple file browsing, then you should define all your libraries as "Home Vidoes" so that no metadata providers or special intelligence will be involved.

But, instead, I highly suggest you try a sample with the proper structure and proper library types so you can see everything Emby can do for you.

[Carlo 4561]

20 hours ago, cayars said:

Hi, are you following our naming guides for Movies and TV Shows?
https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159102-movie-naming
https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159110-tv-naming

 

[RobertLaing 0]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  It is true that we are not a simple file browser (like the interface on your TV).  Emby is a much more intelligent system than that and, if you will follow a few naming and layout conventions, the functionality the system can provide is quite vast.  If you really only want simple file browsing, then you should define all your libraries as "Home Vidoes" so that no metadata providers or special intelligence will be involved.

But, instead, I highly suggest you try a sample with the proper structure and proper library types so you can see everything Emby can do for you.

Thank you very much, I will switch to 'Home Videos' as a solution. I really only need Emby to play files above the restrictions that seem to have been introduced to Samsung Smart TVs. 

 

1 hour ago, cayars said:

 

I don't rename folders or files unless there is a good reason to do so, and I am struggling to think of a good reason given that this seems like pointless labour. I just need the files to be in the same place they are sorted into on my drive. Attempts to use Emby's more 'intelligent system' has been nothing but problematic so far.

[Carlo 4561]

The reason is simple.  Emby needs some basic structure to figure out what your shows are.
A tool like Bulkrename or Filebot would make quick work out of this and then things will just work a lot better for you and save you manual work.

[RobertLaing 0]

6 minutes ago, cayars said:

The reason is simple.  Emby needs some basic structure to figure out what your shows are.
A tool like Bulkrename or Filebot would make quick work out of this and then things will just work a lot better for you and save you manual work.

I don't need Emby to know what the shows are - I just need it to mirror my folder structure and allow me to play the file. 

I have removed and reconnected by main folder using 'Home Videos and Photos' as a Library option as mentioned above. It has removed all folders and presented every file in alphabetical order. Not a solution at all.

Thanks for the help guys but I think we can all see this isn't going to work. I appreciate your advice anyway.

[Carlo 4561]

The solution is to use Emby as it's designed which is following it's naming convention.

If you won't change your folder/filenames to work with Emby then it's not going to be a great solution for you and you will constantly be fighting with it or finding features that don't work as expected.  Rename files folders which is a quick process with a tool such as BulkRenamer or Filebot and things will just start to amazing work really well.

[RobertLaing 0]

I agree, I've gone back to Plex as its issues are pretty easy to live with. Thanks again.

[Carlo 4561]

That's certainly you choice, but when you come back for Emby advanced features that don't work well in Plex or get tired of Plex changing what your users sees then try using the Emby guides as reference (which incidentally will work with Plex as well).

[RobertLaing 0]

I think it's pretty clear that the so-called 'advanced features' don't work well for me. I have used Plex for over a year without issue. Plex does not change my folder set-ups or naming at all, I just had a server connectivity issue (due to cached information) that has now been solved.

[GrimReaper 4741]

20 minutes ago, RobertLaing said:

I don't need Emby to know what the shows are - I just need it to mirror my folder structure and allow me to play the file. 

I have removed and reconnected by main folder using 'Home Videos and Photos' as a Library option as mentioned above. It has removed all folders and presented every file in alphabetical order. Not a solution at all.

Thanks for the help guys but I think we can all see this isn't going to work. I appreciate your advice anyway.

You can do that by going to "Folders" tab in your Library. AFAIK you can even make that a landing page for your library in Settings>Home screen, or it is default already? 

Edited June 14, 2021 by GrimReaper76
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[Luke 42080]

@RobertLaing can we have @cayars jump on a teamviewer with you and take a look at the problem? We're happy to help you resolve your issue. Thanks !

[Carlo 4561]

PM sent to @RobertLaing

[Luke 42080]

Were you able to link up and take a look at it?

[Carlo 4561]

Not yet, hasn't read my PM to him yet with an invite for remote support.